FUTURE OF THE CHURCH.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17401, 11 March 1922, Page 6

FUTURE OF THE CHURCH.

REV H. D. A. IMJOR'S OXFORD SERMON. SHAKEN CEEEDS.

(t R OU OCE OTT>- COEBE9POKDSNT.) LONDON, January 20. "The present situation is this—the things that have beon shaken so severely that they have been shaken out of the honi'ts and miads of modern educated Englishmen still remain in our Church's formularies,, in our prayerbooks and hymn-books." This was a passage at the Asaize sermon at Oxford preached by the Kev. H. D. A. Major, against whom allegations of heresy have be«n made by the Kev. C E Douglas, ilr Major based his address on "the text "Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but the heavens also." He said that the history of religion knew much of those shakings of the heavens, for. they had heralded the great advances m the reliffioua evolution of mankind. Like the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, we in this generation knew something of such a- shaking, for a notable one. had occurred in our own times. Candid ©xnmiuation show that nifiiiy of th« doctrines ivhich.John K.eblo in 1833 his auditors and contemporaries, I regarded as essential to the human I faith . have since then been so sadly shaken that hardly any cultured Englishman could believe them to-day. A new science, a new history, a new psychology., had been the aizcuts m that shaking, but t\ie vera causa was the creative spirit of God. "The effect of this shaking, said Mr Major, "has biten to mako some people very sick and very sad. Others it has alarmed and infuriated. Others it, lias filled with hope. Some aihrmed that as the result of this shaking of the heavens it is evident that there is no longer any God, and that all religion the best and the worst alike, is a figment of the imagination, a, narcotic for the doping of humanity, or an invention, of self-seeking priests, supported by sapient magistrates. Otlieis, forgetting that human protests, hnn - ever loud or well-intentioned, have little effect on the shaking of the heavens, and do nothing to stop the shaking, assorted with strident reiteration that the heavens hove nnfc been shaken, and denounced as heretics and revolutionaries those who maintain that they havo been. Others, again, though by no nieaus a large company, remembered that Christ has predicted the .shaking of the powers that are in the heavens as ono of the signs of the coming of the Son of Man, the coming of the Kingdom of God; and that He has bidden His disciples not; to be terrified or unintelligent in the face of such a crisis, but to lift up their heads in the hope and expectation of coming triumph. These last havo striven to understand the significance of the shaking. and feel that the whole future in-; fluenco of the Church for good depends on t1» removal of the things that aro shaken." Hopelessly Out-of-Date. Wo saw tho result unmistakably, ho continued, in the. emptiness of our chiivchos, the decline in the number of baptisms a.nd confirmations, the decline in tho number of children in our Sunday schools. We wero startled somo years ago by the'relijjious census taken in London, but it was unquestionablo that were a similar census taken today the figures would be far more sensational. "And," he .said, "if wo look at the people who remain in our churches, they do noi. as a whole rejire■sent the more, intelligent . and vital eloments in our community." Another result was tho serious decline in the number of ordinandi), for which tho fundamental reason wa3 that the Church, by ler failure to remove the things shakeni was unfortunately giving an impression to young men such as were found in the Student Christian Movement, and, he believed, equally in tho upper forms, ol our public schools, tliat she was hopelessly out of date and unpleasantly indifferent to the claims of truth and reality. Those who did not know that I (iings_ were shaken and could in consequence live in a fool s paradise or paddle boats in ecclesiastical backwaters might take Holy Orders and some, hci was sure, sought ordination knowing precisely what the situation was, and did so only in tho hope that they might assist in the remqval of the things that were shaken. , . A Twilight Religion. It waa common knowledge that missionary progress in India was at a standstill among the educated classes of that land- Nor was that surprising. One who had held ;:n influential position in the educational world of tho East had said that Christianity seemed to educated Indians to bo a "Twilight Religion." "Tho momentous question at this time," concluded the preacher, * lon the answer to which I believe the fate of the English Church and, as I think also, the fate of the English nation depends is this: Aro the great mass of the educated English laity, through disgust, through sloth, through indifferenco, through moral cowardice, through unwillingness to sacrifice some of the energy, and monejr which they devote to sport and politics, going to allow 'i/he English Church to become so burdened with the impediment of the past- that she must become an ineffective obscurantist sect, or will they strive, by wise organisation and selfsacrificing service to the Church, to redeem it for the English nation and the Kingdom of .God throughout the world? If they will so strive to redeem the Church their work will most certainly redeem them."

formal Teaching and Actual Belief. It is only natural that the leading article in "The Uuerdian," out to-day, should deal with Mr Major's Assize Sermon. It is a very carefully reasoned but non-committal exposition of the subject which is disturbing the religious community to-day; Quoting Lord Dawson of Penn, in the Preface, to his much-discussed Church Congress speech, the writer says that "the ever-widening gap between the formal teaching of the Church and the actual belief the present generation'- is a fact which we cannot ignore. That this gap is largely responsible for estranging the new generation whoso roots do not go down to the days before the war is incontestable. ! "When men and women of strong religious feeling and firm in faith begin stray from the church, it is time for the Church to ask herself Why? If they believe w!i-it she believes, why the estrangement? No small part ol the exolanation resides in the fact that although both think the same fundamental thoughts, they do not speak the same language. Mr Major lias jus been talking of 'shaken Creeds. Jiu > to some considerable extent, it is language in which the Creeds are exsruafs; r? er " £ h ss.ri.nsss s making definite statements of facts not always capable of logical demonstration.

Theology a Progressive Science, "Disaster can only follow upon a cleavage between the teaching ?f .the Church and the intellectual convictions of those who hav« thought seriously over the details; of their faith. The Church necessarily mores slowly and cautiously. It is a trustee which must :think many times Vetore it speaks, especially if speech, vhen it comes, is as i likely to distress some of its children as to relieve others. Tho Church can-

not stand still and allow itself to petrify. Theolo»y is a progressive science, and wo cannot risk having said with truth that everything develops except tbo Church. It does no follow that every rieiv opinion development; if it were, the newest little sect would bo the highest developmcn of the religious sense. But knowledge grows, aud it is our duty to apply 't. J/earning, the fruits of research, tl)6 discoveries of scicnco, cannot be applied in the practical sphere, and ignored onlv where religion is concerned. What is the use of proclaiming theology as 'tlio Queen of sciences' if we refuse to allow scionce, in tho largest sense of the word, to help it to keep abreast of the growth of knowledge? Belief the Thing that Matters. "Our first duty," concludes _ the writer, "is to ho loyal to the Divine ■Spirit, and not to place stumbling blocks in tho path. Every generation differs from its predecessor, and we ought to ho thankful that it is so; yet it is inevitable that the generation which is passing should feel tho wrench of its passing. Tho new on© which is coining, to maturity is doing it at a disordered gallop, instead of at a steady march, and it has assuredly not yet assimilatod all wisdom and all understanding. But the speed of tho movement must not unduly alarm us. Our grandchildren will still believe, but their., method will not be ours, any more than ours is that of our grandparents. Belief is the one thing that matters, and wo must no* mako it too hard. Experimental religion will always bo the touchstone of life and character. Creeds were meant to help, and not to hinder, and they help most when interpreted in the light which tho Holy ypifit is ever showering upon us. To that Spirit we dare not be false." "The Times" remarks; "To what extent exactly men's minds have b<3en 'shaken' is probably beyond the competence of tho wisest ecclesiastical statistician to determine; but if' we understand the modernist attitude, it is in essence not one of pessimism, which would confuse a 'shaking' offaith with its cofnplete destruction, but an acknowledgment that there has been such a 'shaking,' but that, given nower categories of theological thought, vaguo nerhaps, and oven dangerously loose, to those who have felt no 'sliakiug,' btit not in disaccordanco with what may. now accept as canons of evidence, and a moro exact knowledge of the physical world, a way lies open; to tho. recovery of settled religious: conviction. That any coyv-ictioti oh. the ultimate hiatterV of belief Must gious, both modernists and their, opponents will-agree." . The '.'Umyerso" (the prominent Koman Catholic weekly) to-day remarks that it will be interesting to watch tho issue of tho appeal made by Mr Douglas against tho'Bishop of Oxford's refusal to prosecute Mr Major. "Mr Major/has preached his Assize Sermon, and a verv remarkable sermon it was, about which we may have more to say."